Input And Advice Please

Just received an email from the learning support teacher advising that Educational psychology will not be involved with my son L due to school having no concerns with his behaviour and having adequate strategies to support him.

They have relayed this to his paediatrician advising her off this and are awaiting feedback.

The paediatrician asked for ed psych involvement in order to assess L at schools as the initial report they gave was not clear enough to help her determine wether she was going to take L down the path off assessment or another route.

Can someone tell me why an earth a child would need a support plan in the first place if he wasn't experiencing some difficulties with his behaviour. 😫

Yes L copes well at school, I would expect nothing more off L given his nature and how he is compelled to do his best because he hates getting in to trouble at school.

It's home that he shuts down if his anxiety gets too high, L is high functioning and manages well if there is no e oectations on him.

Just this morning I had to write a letter in to the school because he had been picked to read a burns poem in class which is causing him high anxiety ( refer to other post re this lol )

I'm so angry that school could stop this before it starts, if he was causing challenging behaviour they would be the first to complain.

What should I do, I feel replying to the school would be futile at this stage, I was going to email the paediatrician directly advising her on his behaviours the past few months and what I feel about the schools input?

I need to research a little on what L is entitled to at this stage to for armed is forewarned and all that.

Anxiety is totally misunderstood,( even in specialist schools.) DS1 has a DX of apsergers and anxiety, yet in 8 years we have been unable to get the anxiety recognised fully. The DX is accepted, but he is treated at best as a young person with ASD, and at worst as rude and unwilling. Ironically he was initially easier to manage then his younger brother who started show signs of severe anxiety on going to secondary school. EP's often see things that the school doesn't, for both our boys the EP flagged up anxiety where the schools saw no problem. But then schools didn't think either had ASD either.

What seems to have happened to you is that the paediatrician needs EP advice, but the school feel they don't; in effect the school are saying that no issues in school mean an EP isn't needed, but that is ignoring the paediatrician's request.

I think that you are in Scotland, but the basic principles of plans should allow for you to request an EP assessment yourself. (I'm not as familiar with the law in Scotland, but a quick browse shows that Enquire would be a good place to get info).

Interests:Totally loony mum to a very wonderful 12 year old with aspergers who is much more sane than me!

Posted 27 January 2017 - 10:31 AM

I think you can ask for a referral yourself to EP (someone correct me if I'm wrong). If you do this expect EP to try and shrug you off but dig your heals in and demand an assessment that's what I had to do years and years ago.

If you can afford it go private.

Keep a record of all these difficulties that he has at school. Take photocopies of the home/school diary if you have one. You'd be amazed how the school diary suddenly does a disappearing act once you start pushing for assessments.

Try www.enquire.org.uk. They have all the ASN education rights in Scotland:

"You also have the right to ask for a specific type of assessment for your child" - it does say you can't ask for a specific person but you can ask for EP input and the LA has to provide it. You may need to be quite insistent!

Make sure you have all your records too.

In our case, ds1 came across as very confident. He has an extremely controlling nature. He is also an extrovert (active participant in drama). People see this and not the rigid thinking, the anxiety around situations he can't control, etc.